This invention relates to electrical connectors.
Connectors of the type known as miniature ribbon style or telco connectors are typically used to provide electrical contact between cables including a plurality of unshielded twisted wire pairs. Such connectors usually comprise an insulative housing which includes two rows of contacts. One end of the contacts provides either a male or female mating section for electrical connection with another connector. The opposite ends of the contacts are formed into insulation displacement contacts which pierce the insulation of the twisted wire pairs to provide electrical contact thereto. The wire pairs are attached so that each wire in a pair is coupled to a different row of the array of contacts, and so that the wires rest in an essentially horizontal direction (i.e., parallel to the contacts). (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,350,404 issued to Clark et al.)
It has also been suggested in some connector structures to have cable wire attached to insulation displacement contacts in a vertical direction (i.e., perpendicular to the contacts). (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,316 issued to Rollings.)
Standards for crosstalk in connectors are becoming increasingly stringent. For example, in category 5 of the proposed EIA/TiA TSB40 Standard, it is required that a 25 pair ribbon cable connector exhibit near-end crosstalk which is less than 40 dB at 100 MHz using the standard power sum measurement. However, the mating section of the typical connector by itself does not meet this requirement. Thus, reducing crosstalk in other portions of the connector is not sufficient to provide a connector which conforms to this new performance standard.